Flipped
by elfspring
Summary: AU: Harry Potter has so far enjoyed his life after Hogwarts and Voldermort, working for the Auror Department and is highly rated. Until a girl arrives at the department and makes his life living hell.
1. Chapter 1

Flipped

By Elfspring

Author's Note: Hello! I greet you from my writer's box. (my bedroom) This is my first ever fanfic! Very excited! I don't know how good this chapter is but hope its good enough for the time that you are about to take into reading my first chapter. Anyway please read and review!

Thank you!

Elfspring

Disclaimer: uh… I don't own anything (sadly) So everything owns to JK Rowling and the people involved with the publishers.

Chapter 1

Harry James Potter was currently sitting at his desk at the Auror Department in the Ministry of Magic, on his desk read a sign.

_Potter, Harry James_

_Head of Field Operations_

Harry was quite proud of his achievements in life after he had defeated Lord Voldermort. Soon after Voldermorts downfall he was named he world's most powerful wizard, the ministry offered him jobs that weren't ever held by an eighteen years old. After many days contemplating on what job he wanted, he finally decided that he wanted to play Quidditch for a few years before thinking of his next career move.

Harry had played for the Chudley Cannons and England along side his best friend, Ron Weasley. For the seven years he had played Quidditch he had accomplished a lot for such a short career. He had led the Chudley Cannons to six Quidditch League wins as well as England to two World Cup wins. Due to the fact he was so successful as a captain and player he was the highest paid Quidditch player in the history of Quidditch.

After seven years of playing professionally, being in the public eye, signing autographs and constantly travelling he decided to retire and follow the career he had chosen when he was still attending school.

His auror training had taken less time then he anticipated, half a year later he was made the assistant of the Head of Field Operations. It took another year until he finally got promoted to where he was now.

Harry was talking to his partner, Gareth Cliff. When he noticed a girl, around his age, walking with Kingsley Shacklebolt towards the Briefing room. He noticed that she had wavy brown hair, brown eyes and was quite tall for a girl. He was racking his brain if he had ever met her before when he noticed that Gareth was gaping at her with his mouth hanging open.

"Gareth!" Harry whispered urgently.

"Yeah Harry?" Gareth replied distantly.

Harry had enough of Gareth gaping at a girl he was watching and playfully whacked him at the back of his head.

"Ow! What was that for!" Gareth asked clearly annoyed.

"Is this the first time you've seen a person from the opposite sex?" Harry asked obviously amused.

"Very funny Harry! Unlike you my life is not dominated by my work and it's not everyday you see something that beautiful walk into this division!" Gareth pointed out.

Harry just rolled his eyes and went back to his work.

Not even five minutes had passed after the girl had arrived when the telephone on his desk started ringing. Before Harry picked it up he found it quite amusing that ever since Mr Weasley had become Minister of Magic, Muggle Technology had been altered to be able to be used in the offices of the Ministry. He was brought back down to earth when he noticed that his colleagues where shooting him annoying glances as the phone continued to ring. Harry muttered an apology before picking up the phone.

"Potter here." Harry muttered.

"What took you so long to pick up your bloody phone!" said the man.

Harry knew full well who was on the line but decided to play with his boss.

"Excuse me! I don't know who you are but you have got some nerve talking to an auror like that!" Harry said with a tone of a person whose temper was rising.

"Harry… GET IN HERE NOW!" shouted Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"Okay… okay… I'm coming." replied Harry with a drawl.

Harry got up from his desk and slowly walked towards the briefing room while stopping to greet some of his co-workers along the way. When he reached the briefing room he saw it saw three people, the girl he saw before, Angela Jones – the Head of Tactics and Research in the auror division and a disgruntled looking Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"Ahh.. Harry! How _nice_ of you to join us." said Kingsley while offering him a seat opposite the girl.

Harry sat down and took a quick glance of the girl before setting his eyes back on Kingsley.

"Before we begin, Harry I would like you to meet the new assistant of Angela, Hermione Granger."

Harry extended a hand to her which she shook.

"Nice to meet you." Harry stated.

"You too Mr Potter." replied Hermione.

Harry found it quite odd that it was basically the first time where he met someone who didn't ogle over his scar or ask about the battle against Voldermort. Harry enjoyed being greeted like a normal but also found it unnerving at the same time.

"Ok we can now get on with this briefing." announced Shacklebolt.

After an hour (to Harry seemed to be an eternity) the briefing ended. Hermione was escorted out by Angela while talking about the briefing they had just had. Harry got up from his seat to leave when Kingsley told him to resume sitting.

"Harry I will only tell this to you once, she outranks you and in the field I expect you to take her orders without questioning them."

Harry opened his mouth to object but was cut off by Kingsley.

"No buts Harry. Your instincts are good but I'm not putting my field agents in danger just because you have a gut feeling. You may leave now."

By the time Harry returned to his desk he was fuming. He found it incredibly unfair that someone whom he had never seen in the Auror division get a job which outranked him. In less than five minutes he had her file sitting at his desk. He opened it and saw a photo of her which was taken recently, her file read.

_GENERAL INFORMATION:_

_Name: Hermione Jane Granger_

_Age: 27 years_

_Birth Place: England_

_Marital Status: Single_

_Schooling: Beauxbatons Academy_

_Eye colour: Brown_

_Hair Colour: Brown_

_OTHER INFORMATION:_

_Prefect in 5th and 6th year_

_Head Girl in 7th Year_

_Muggle-born_

_O.W.l's:Ancient Runes- Outstanding_

_Arithmancy-Outstanding_

_Defence Against the Dark Arts-Exceeds Expectations_

_Charms- Outstanding_

_Transfiguration-Outstanding_

_Herbology-Outstanding_

_Potions-Outstanding_

_Care of Magical Creatures-Outstanding_

_Astronomy-Outstanding_

_History of Magic-Outstanding_

_N.E.W.T.s: Charms-Outstanding_

_Defence Against the Dark Arts-Outstanding_

_Transfiguration-Outstanding_

_Herbology-Outstanding_

_Arithmancy-Outstanding_

_Ancient Runes-Outstanding_

_Potions-Outstanding_

Harry continued to look through her file for another thirty minutes until he got called into the Briefing room once again. As he entered the Briefing room he noticed that there were many more people sitting in the room, in total there was about ten.

Harry took his usual seat which was closest to the door which allowed him to have more time to remember the mapping of the locations. It wasn't long until Kingsley walked in and started telling them about the mission and objectives.

"We've just received a tip-off from a reliable source that an anonymous Dark Wizard is attempting to recruit Hogwarts students at Hogsmeade in the next hour. There is said to be a meeting at a secluded building in Hogsmeade. Our objective is to try to stop the students from attending the meeting as well as trying to capture the anonymous wizard and take him into our custody." Kingsley stated before moving towards the projected map of the area.

Remus Lupin had helped the division in re-creating maps of the country which showed the movements every civilian in the country including muggles. Just like the Marauder map that he had made with James, Sirius and Peter. Unfortunately they weren't able to reproduce the names onto the map.

Harry looked up and started to study the map, currently there were only green dots walking around the area. Kingsley explained the colour coding to the people who were new to this map.

"The green dots are wizard and witches, red dots are muggles and squibs, blue dots are underage wizards, black dots are the field aurors and yellow dots are ministry officials."

Kingsley gave a moment for the aurors to take it in before continuing.

"OK, Harry I want you and your team to surround the area but remain inconspicuous. I also want your team wired up and keep constant communication with the tactic teams here. Angela I want you and your team to keep me updated and keep the field teams informed. Let's go!"

As Harry was right next to the door he was the first one out and managed to get his team kitted and wired up. Harry and his team were ready to leave when he noticed that Kingsley was walking up to him.

"Harry if you do not follow the orders of Hermione or Angela I will declare you as rogue and I will take you into custody!" Kingsley said warningly.

Harry only grunted in response before setting off with his team to the apparition station to apparate into their safe house in Hogsmeade.

It had taken Harry and his team about thirty minutes to set up a perimeter around the area while remaining inconspicuous. Harry was sitting by himself pretending to play chess by himself when he remembered that he had to tell Angela that they were ready.

"Angela field team is in place." Harry whispered while moving his prawn two blocks forward. Harry was getting odd glances from passer-by's until they finally concluded that he must be talking to himself while playing.

A person responded but it wasn't Angela's voice, "Potter this is Granger. Angela has gone with Kingsley to a meeting with the Minister."

At the sound of her voice he inwardly groaned.

"Ok Granger, we're in place what do you want us to do?" said Harry while moving his knight.

"The map here says a man has just exited the building and is standing by the entrance, it seems that he is standing guard at the doorway, do you have a visual of him?"

Harry looked up and saw a giant of a man standing by the doorway analyzing the every movement of the passer-by's.

"Yeah I have a visual, he's about six feet ten inches, Caucasian, short black hair, no facial hair and an earring in his left ear. He has a tattoo on his right shoulder but I can't see the details." Harry whispered.

Harry heard Hermione whisper the details to one of the researchers. After a few seconds he received feedback.

"Okay we've managed to narrow the list down, we've got five possibilities. Can you see any other distinctive possibilities?"

"Um… you will have to wait a while, he's still on the lookout and he's looking my way. Oh shit he's walking towards me!" Harry whispered urgently attempting not to look up at the approaching man.

"Potter, you are not to reprimand him until we find sufficient evidence that he is connected to the recruiting!" Hermione said warningly.

"I'm telling you Granger that he is part of them, I'm going to take him out as soon as he reaches me."

"Don't you dare Potter! He's only on the watch out once he's happy that no one is watching he will return to the building and then you can raid the building."

Harry glanced up as soon as the man reached him, Harry's instinct was to take him into custody but he remembered the warning from Kingsley and decided against it. Harry inhaled when the man took the seat across the table and spoke.

"Never seen you around here before." said the man, he had a gruff voice and his voice definitely didn't have a British accent. The man took his knight and checked his king.

Harry grunted and continued pretending to mutter to himself.

"So what are you doing here?" asked the man.

"Got nothing else to do, haven't had a job since last year." Harry replied sounding irritated.

"Hmmm… bloody nice watch for someone who hasn't had a job for nine months." the man said while pointing at his watch.

At the Auror Division the Tactics team held their breath as they heard the man say it. Some of them stopped typing thinking that the jig was up and that they had been found out.

"Uh…" Harry had no clue what to say but he quickly remembered a man he knew at school who had a dangerous passion. Harry glanced around nervously at his team who were all getting ready to rescue him; obviously they had been listening to the conversation.

"Uh… I nicked it." Harry whispered trying to act and talk nervously.

The man obviously believed him and the aurors at the division let their breath out and couldn't believe how close it was. The man didn't question him until they had finished their game.

"What's your name?" questioned the man.

"Dylan Wood and yours?" asked Harry trying to sound uninterested.

"Bartholomew Elsaesser, you aren't related to the Puddlemere player are you?"

"Uh no." Harry said shaking his head.

"So what do you think of our Minister of Magic?" inquired Bartholomew.

"A bloody muggle lover! Cares more about the muggles than his people! The people who made him Minister are off their rocker!" Harry said in an angry tone while slamming his fist down onto the chess board.

The man smirked at him.

"I'll tell you what, in about five minutes me and my friends are having a get-together with people who, like you, are against the ministry. I insist that you attend. With us you will be able to have a voice and get the Minister removed from office." Bartholomew offered.

"Okay, I don't have anything else to do," Harry replied with a shrug.

Bartholomew stood up and was walking away before turning around and telling him that it would be held at the building he was headed towards. As soon as he was out of earshot Harry quickly whispered, "Have you got that Granger?"

"In fact Potter I do indeed have all the information. I want you lead your team into the building and lead a full attack on the men inside." Hermione ordered.

"I don't think that is the right call, I should attend the meeting and in the middle of it my team enters and takes both the students and wizards into custody." Harry tried to point out.

"Don't question my judgement Potter, remember I outrank you and currently I think its best we attack now! Do you understand!" demanded Hermione.

Harry just muttered a yes before signalling his team into position; his team was stationed outside the entrance and he quickly cast an anti-appiration charm around the building before leading his team in.

An hour later he was back at the Auror Division, he and his team had managed to arrest all the wizards that were involved with the recruiting. After interrogating Bartholomew for fifteen minutes he found out that none of the wizards were the one that they were searching for. As he headed towards the Briefing room to be de-briefed he was congratulated over and over again by his colleagues.

As he entered the Briefing room he noticed that Kingsley was looking at him darkly. As Harry sat down at his usual seat Kingsley spoke to him coldly.

"I told you not to question orders!"

"I didn't question the orders! I believed that there was another way of handling the situation. If you had followed my plans we would have been able to take both the wizards and students into custody!" Harry objected.

"But those weren't the objectives! Our objectives were to prevent the students from attending the meeting not to take them into custody. Hermione's plan was adequate for the situation! Take this as you first and last warning, if you ever question a person who outranks you I will demote you and put Gareth in your place."

Harry laughed at the thought of Gareth being Head of Field Operations.

"You _must_ be joking Kingsley! Gareth doesn't even have a year of experience under his belt!"

"Well at the very least he listens to orders and doesn't question them! You are to be suspended from your duties for the next two weeks. You will be at the disposal of Hermione."

All Harry could do was gape at Kingsley, not believing what he had just heard and hoping that this was all a bad dream. Harry was speechless, at the present moment he was upset by the fact that he had been suspended from his job for two weeks, but it was the fact that the duration of his suspension he was to take orders from Hermione Granger whom with every passing second Harry loathed more.

All Harry could do for the next hour in the Briefing room while being de-briefed in the meeting was shoot Kingsley death glares every time he looked at him. During the duration of the meeting his temper cooled down and was able to think straight, after thinking calmly about the situation he decided against trying to reason and thought that accepting his punishment would cause him less trouble in the long run. He would be the personal slave of Hermione Granger for the next week and once his two weeks were up he would resume his old post.

Later that night he was having a drink with his best friend at the players lounge at the Chudley Cannons stadium. His best friend Ron Weasley had just finished playing a game against Puddlemere United. The Chudley Cannons had won so all of his team-mates decided to head down towards the local bar instead of the upmarket player's lounge. All the players except for Ron went.

Harry and Ron were currently sitting down by the glass wall which allowed the people in the lounge to see the game on the pitch. They were currently talking about the latest League table and who they predict would give Chudley Cannons a run for their money this season. Ron noticed during the whole conversation that Harry seemed distant and seemed to be floating around in his own world.

"So what's up Harry?" Ron asked as he took a swig of butterbeer.

"Huh?" Harry said dumbly while staring outside into the deserted stadium, before finally being able to shake himself out of his trance.

"What do you mean?" asked Harry.

"Well you seem out of it… if you know what I mean." Ron said while signalling to the barman for another butterbeer.

Harry merely groaned as he thought of his horrible day at work and the introduction of Hermione Granger into his life.

"So was work _that_ bad?" Ron asked interested.

Harry was banging his head on the table and stopped briefly and lifted up his head and nodded briefly before he continued to bang his head.

Ron was going to ask him to tell him what his day was like but Harry beat him to it and started to regurgitate what had happened to him during the day. One hour later and four more butterbeers Harry had finally finished his day to Ron.

Ron tried to be the understanding friend but couldn't help himself from laughing. Harry looked at him shocked and slightly hurt that his terrible day was being laughed at by his BEST FRIEND. Harry's mouth was open, lost for words as Ron continued to laugh. It took quite a while before Ron finally stopped laughing.

"Ah, Harry you seem to have had a _really _crap day, it is however quite amusing!" said Ron with a smirk.

Harry just gave a grunt an annoyed grunt for an answer.

"Don't worry too much!" Ron said with a smile while patting Harry's back playfully. "Maybe she will become a bit more… uh… lenient towards you for… uh your next two weeks."

Harry gave a disbelieving grunt.

"I know for a fact that all the members of the Wizengamot adore her, so does my dad and half the ministries Heads. Dad told me they have been chasing after her to apply for our ministry ever since she left Beauxbaton Academy. It's rumoured that she gets paid better than some of the Heads of the other departments." Ron said conversationally.

"Ron were did you get all this information? Do you stalk her or something?" Harry asked.

"Hahaha, very funny Harry." Ron said sarcastically. "No I was chatting to Timothy the other day. He told me a bit about her; after all it's his girlfriend."

"Well I wouldn't expect anything less from her, dating a guy whose father is a multi-billionaire and who happens to own this club." Harry stated.

"Maybe she does like a bit of power… Timothy is also my dad's Junior Assistant. She really does have her connections." Ron said while talking another swig of his butterbeer.

Harry frankly had enough of Ron praising the person he was currently the most annoyed with.

"Ron…"

"Yeah Harry?"

"Shut up."

"Okay Harry."

The rest of the night went without a mention of Hermione Granger. Harry had a high tolerance level towards alcohol but still managed to get drunk when the team came back for more drinks. Harry managed to beat all his former team mates in drinking the most beers. In the point-of-view of Harry there wasn't a better way to say hello to his new 'boss' than to have a hangover on his first-day of his new temporary job.

Author's Note: Hey me again! You got to the end! Thank you so much for reading! Please leave a review even if it's jut to say it's crap. The next chapter should be up in about two weeks! By the way I'm looking for a beta, if you're interested please pop me a mail at the next chapter cheers!


	2. Chapter 2

Flipped

By Elfspring

Chapter 2

Harry was currently sitting at a desk in the Tactics and Research division of the Auror Department; he was currently being made by his 'new boss' Hermione Granger, to sort through the mail that had arrived at the department that morning. It had been a whole week since Harry had been demoted temporarily; his first job the next day was to unpack all the boxes that had arrived for Hermione into her new office. Of course Harry could've done it with a few swishes of his wand but Hermione had specifically stated that he was to unpack without any magic.

As the days progressed his work got even more appalling. He kept had a fleeting thought that Hermione was doing this on purpose to slowly cut him down and always had a thought at the back of his mind that she was enjoying giving him these lousy jobs.

Harry gave a sigh of relief as he finally reached the bottom of all the letters that he had to sort through. Now the only thing he had to do was deliver them. It took him another hour until he finally delivered all of the letters. He was about to walk towards Hermione's office to ask what other job she required when the phone at his desk started to ring.

Harry groaned before he slowly made his way to his desk. He picked up the phone and once again it was Kingsley Shacklebolt. For the past week he had been phoning Harry every thirty minutes to check-up on him and ask if he was doing everything Hermione was asking him to do. However this time it was different.

"This is Potter," Harry said uninterested.

"Harry this is Kingsley please come into my office," said Kingsley.

"I didn't do anything wrong!" Harry said earnestly.

"Who said you did anything wrong? Just come in here, I want to talk to you about something. It's really important so don't take your time getting here!" Kingsley said before putting down the phone before Harry could answer.

This time Harry listened to Kingsley and didn't take his time in getting to his office, if his voice wasn't so urgent Harry would have taken his time like he did every time he got called. As he got to Kingsley's office he heard both Kingsley and Hermione's voice from the office, it sounded as they were having a shouting match in the office. Harry decided to knock on the door in case he was interrupting something that he didn't want to know about. Harry waited a while before finally deciding that they had not heard his knocking, he knocked again but a bit louder. A few seconds later the door swung open and Kingsley was standing in the doorway looking a bit flustered. Harry decided not to ask what had happened and instead sat down on the chair next to Hermione.

There was an awkward silence before Kingsley started to tell Harry why he wanted to see him for.

"Harry… Hermione has just received a death threat from an anonymous person-"

"Kinsley, half the death threats that this department receives are mostly all hoaxes! How do we know this one is for real and are you really going to use this department resource for something which could be a joke?" Harry asked with a note of disbelief in his tone.

"Harry I know for sure this is not a hoax. Hermione has been here for only a week, not many people know she has even started working here." Kingsley said seriously. "I'm sorry Harry but I'm going to take this threat seriously, even if you think this is not."

"May I ask why you are telling me this? I've been relieved of my position temporarily; Gareth is in charge so you should be telling him this not me." Harry said thoughtfully.

"Yes I know, but like you've mentioned you've been temporarily relieved so therefore you are working for Hermione, doing things that she has asked you to do. But I'm going to ask you to watch over her for the next twelve hours." Stated Kingsley. "If you do this you will have your job back by ten o' clock tonight."

Harry took a few seconds to think about this offer, in the end he had no other choice than to agree to Kingsley's proposal. After Harry had nodded Hermione quickly got up from her seat and walked out of the office, Harry had to jog to keep up with her as she walked towards the elevator. She pressed the fortieth floor which could only mean that she was going up to the Minister's office. As the elevators doors opened she quickly walked in, Harry was staring at the highlighted button lost in his thoughts on why she was going up to the office but was quickly brought back down to earth when he heard Hermione's voice snap at him.

"Are you getting in of what? Or are you forbidding me to go up?" Hermione snapped while tapping her foot.

Harry inwardly groaned and shook is head as he walked into the elevator. The elevator ride was cold and quiet for a few seconds until Hermione spoke…

"Potter you know that I don't like you?" Hermione said without looking at him.

Harry merely nodded and continued to stare at the buttons as each number passed but not before being highlighted. Currently they were passing the thirtieth floor. Harry was currently hoping that she wasn't going to say anymore but of course luck wasn't on his side.

"I actually admired you after you had defeated Lord Voldermort, but after discovering that you had got the Head of Field Operations job after just working for the department for two years I knew my first perspective of you was true. Son of one of the most well-known couple in the wizarding world and the chosen-one, it would be obvious that there would be a uproar if you didn't make your way up the career ladder in record time. I despise people who get what-ever they want served to them on a silver platter. You are one of them."

She ended her well planned outburst when the elevator door opened. All Harry could do was stare at her with his mouth agape, both with amusement and shock as she walked out towards the waiting area of the Minister's Office. Harry followed her towards the office that was on the left. Harry now knew exactly why she came up here, the door on the right was the Minister's Senior Secretary the middle door was Mr Weasley's Office and the door she was walking to was The Minister's Junior Assistant, it was the office of her boyfriend, Timothy Simpson.

Harry was dreading having to walk into the office with her. He breathed a sigh of relief when she told him that she would be fine without him for a few minutes as she talked to her boyfriend. Harry watched her walk into the office and as soon as the door closed he started pacing around the waiting room. As he saw a framed article from the Daily Prophet he noticed it was the day he had defeated Voldermort. It was a photo that the whole world recognized; the photo took the whole page and had him standing in the centre of what seemed like a mammoth crater. By his feet was a black cloak, it was worn by Voldermort before he was vanquished.

Harry grinned at the picture, every time he saw the picture he couldn't help but smile to himself, he had done something far beyond his expectations and it was something he cherished and knew that in his entire life he would never be able to do such a mammoth task again.

After what seemed like hours Hermione finally exited the office, she was escorted out by Timothy who was grinning at her. Before they had reached Harry, Timothy whispered something in Hermione's ear which made he grin a little bit broader than a few seconds earlier. Harry inwardly groaned, he wished that if he ever fell in love again he wouldn't act like the two people who were standing in front of him.

Harry was about to turn around and go to the elevator when Timothy called him.

"Hey Potter! Hermione's got a date with me tonight at the Chudley's games! I don't think you would mind if you came to watch!"

Harry looked at him with an expressionless face but inside he was screaming with happiness. Finally, for the first time in that week he had something to look forward to. Today was the final between the Chudley Cannons and Wimbourne Wasps for the Quidditch Cup. Ron had invited him to watch but Harry sadly had to decline.

Harry replied with a toneless, "Cool"

Timothy and Hermione watched Harry as he walked towards the elevator. Timothy made sure Harry was out of earshot before whispering, "I expected him to be a bit happier, he was Quidditch mad when I met him when he first started out at the club. Anyway I'll see you tonight then?"

"Yeah," Hermione replied with a grin before giving him a peck on the cheek and turning around to make her way to the elevator.

The elevator ride back down was a quiet one. Neither Harry nor Hermione looked at each other or attempted to make conversations. Harry thought that if he was to make if through this job without either of them making an attempt on each others life they should make as little conversation possible.

Harry was once again sitting in the Chudley Cannons player's lounge. He was currently in a good mood compared to that of that morning. Chudley Cannons had managed to win the Quidditch Cup even though it was a very tight game. In the end it was Ron's incredible saves that managed to leave the Cannons a chance to win if their seeker caught the snitch. During the game Harry had managed to spot the snitch a lot more times then both of the seekers on the pitch, it was the only part of the game that kept Harry annoyed. The Chudley Cannons seeker Sean Murray managed an average dive (in Harry's eyes) to catch the snitch and earning Chudley Cannons their win, the score was 310- 290.

Harry was actually enjoying himself, something he wasn't expecting in the company of Timothy Simpson, John Simpson, the owner of the club and father to Timothy, and Hermione. Harry was also in the company of Ron which made the gathering even more enjoyable. Harry was drinking his third bottle of butterbeer when he heard a soft metallic sound in the distant. Harry immediately turned around and saw that there weren't many people, a barman, waiters scattered around a few cleaners and a doorman.

"Is anything wrong Harry?" Ron asked seriously even though he was a bit drunk.

"I don't know Ron. I thought I heard a metallic sound somewhere," Harry said while surveying everything around him.

"Harry I think you are currently being a bit paranoid, its probably just the cleaners gathering all the other bottles left here," Ron said while returning his attention back to his drink.

Harry continued to look around the lounge to see if anyone was looking suspicious or didn't seem to look vaguely familiar. After a few minutes Harry went back to the conversation he was having with Ron.

An hour had passed since he heard the sound and shrugged it off but it didn't mean he wasn't still aware of his surrounding and the safety of Hermione. Hermione and Timothy were currently looking out the glass wall towards the pitch where fireworks were being put on because of the victory.

Harry kept a constant watch on the surroundings when he heard the sound again. This time the sound was much closer, Harry's eyes darted around the room until he laid his eyes on a cleaner who was by the entrance and had a menacing look in his eyes. He gave Harry a sadistic smirk and was playing with something in his hands, his eyes kept glancing at Hermione and Timothy.

Harry in this specific time had no other thought in his mind than try to get Hermione and Timothy out of the line of fire. What happened in the next few seconds seemed to be in slow motion. The man flung the object which was in his hand towards the direction of Hermione; Harry had less then a few seconds to push them both out of the way. Without another thought Harry took a few steps towards them and lunged over ad pushed them out of the way. Harry fell to the ground and felt something pierce his arm; he looked at his arm and saw blood dripping from a knife which was embedded in his arm.

"What the hell are you doing Harry?" asked John Simpson while trying to help his son and Hermione up onto their feet.

"Harry… you're bleeding!" Ron said while pointing at his arm.

"Yeah I know. Hermione are you alright?" Harry asked while attempting to pull out the knife in his arm.

"Yeah I'm fine Harry, what just happened?" Hermione asked slowly obviously in shock.

Harry just remembered that the man who flung the knife could still be in the building and immediately took after him.

"John, please alert the security in the stadium to put up wards against apparition and to watch out for a man who happens to be running." Harry shouted while running out of the lounge.

Harry ran down the stairs which was the only way to get into the lounge. As he ran down the stairs he found that the pain in his arm was nearly unbearable, without any other choice he grabbed the handle and pulled the knife out of his arm. He bit his bottom lip to try and dull the pain; he quickly flung the knife to one side while he continued to run. As he reached the bottom of the stairs he saw that the man had two directions to go down. He looked to the left and saw nothing that aroused his suspicion; he looked to the right and saw the man jogging down the corridor. Harry couldn't believe his luck that the man was still in the building. It seemed the man thought that there wouldn't be anybody trying to pursue to him.

"Hey!" Harry shouted while running towards him. The man turned around and eyes grew wide before dashing down the corridors towards the exit. The man was faster then Harry had anticipated him to be, in no time he was nearing the exit and Harry knew he wouldn't be able to catch him, he decided that he should use his brain instead of his brawn. Harry took out his wand and shouted, "Petrificus Totalus!"

The man immediately got frozen on the spot and within the second fell to the floor with a great thump. Harry made his way towards the man and smirked at him before grabbing his arm and apparating him back to the player's lounge. When he arrived he saw that Kingsley had arrived while bringing five other aurors and the department's healer.

"Harry! How did you manage to catch this man so quickly?" Kingsley asked while staring at the man who was by one of Harry's foot.

Harry who was tired due to the fact that he had just lost a lot of blood just gave an unhelpful grunt.

"Well anyway Harry I'm going to take this man for questioning. I suggest you get your arm looked at by Rachel," Kingsley said before disapparating.

Harry looked around the room and saw that the staff were all being questioned and that Hermione and Timothy were currently getting the attention of Rachel who was currently giving them towels to wrap themselves in and gave them both a potion to calm them down.

"Hey Harry! You alright? Looks like a nasty cut, fancy a butterbeer?" Ron asked still obviously drunk and a bit oblivious to what had just happened.

"Yeah Ron that would be great," was all Harry could manage before dropping himself into the single couch chair.

"You know Harry; you shouldn't take your job so seriously! I'm starting to get why Ginny left you for Malfoy, if I was your girlfriend and you came home everyday looking like you ran through sewage pipes I would dump you to!" Ron said absentmindedly while handing the butterbeer over to Harry.

Harry wasn't really listening to Ron while he continued to speak. The only thing that was going through his mind was that Rachel was currently treating two people with shock while he was here nearly bleeding to death. But there wasn't anything else for him to do but to sit there and wait for her to come along and heal him. It took her another five minutes until she was finished with Hermione and Timothy and finally made her way to Harry.

"Aah, you again Harry! You seem to get yourself into a spot of trouble these days. Oooh… this knife cut doesn't look too good, I suspect the knife was magical… most likely dark magic…"

"Oh great! So you are telling me that you won't be able to heal me and that the reward a get for saving someone is a week of pain?" Harry asked while shaking his head.

"Make that two Harry, it seems that your arm will need to be bandaged and you will need a sling too, so you don't move your arm excessively. I'm going to dab something in the wound so all the bacteria will be killed… it might hurt a bit," Rachel said while dipping a cotton bud into a blue bottle.

Rachel was right the something she dabbed into his wound did hurt, Harry wasn't counting on this much pain as he went through more then his fair share of disinfectants, Harry was absentmindedly taking a sip of his butterbeer when she dabbed the wound, the sudden surge of pain caused Harry to choke on his butterbeer in shock.

"Hey! I told you it would be sore, next time please refrain from drinking or eating something when I tell you something is going to hurt, I wish to have my naught percent mortality rate still intact." Rachel said while she started to bandage his arm.

A couple minutes past before she finished bandaging his arm, after several pleas from Harry she finally gave in and decided not to give him a sling if he promised that he wouldn't do anything to hurt his arm further. "By the way Harry, Kingsley wants you back at the department, wants to talk to you about something,"

Harry just nodded and said a quick a goodbye to Ron before apparating to the Ministry.

When Harry arrived in the department it was reasonably busy even though it was already quite late. Perhaps it was because they caught a suspect and they all got dragged back, Harry thought to himself. Harry made his way across the department, dodging Gareth who seemed like wanting to know the full story by Harry himself.

Harry sat by himself in Kingsley's office for nearly half an hour before Kingsley walked into his office clearly a bit angry.

"How was the questioning?" Harry asked immediately.

"A bloody waste of time! The man's a squib, that's why he was so easy to catch! He was also paid to do this…" Kingsley shouted but steadily calming down.

"Didn't he tell you who paid him?" Harry questioned.

Kingsley gave Harry an odd look before replying.

"Harry, you've been at this job long enough that the masterminds never give their names to people who work for them. The man you caught name is Damien Taylor, he's thirty years old and in the muggle world he works as an assassin. He was doing quite well before he got this job, probably got paid a ton to be dragged back into the wizarding world and kill someone the muggle way." Kingsley said thoughtfully before turning his attention back to why he had asked Harry to come to the department.

"Harry… Angela and I agree that you should take a break of about a week… this is not a recommendation but an order," said Kingsley.

Harry for the first time in his auror career, Harry didn't feel like objecting to having a break.

Harry merely nodded and started to get up from his chair.

"By the way Harry, well done, I'm sorry I had to make you stay with Hermione for a week but at least in the long run you listen to orders a bit better." Kingsley said while grinning at him.

Harry nodded again before walking out of the office and back to his desk.

Harry started to pack a few of the files that he wanted to work on while he had a bit of break when he noticed Hermione was walking towards him. Harry pretended he didn't notice her as he couldn't of bet that she was here to annoy him and tell him that he didn't do a very good job blah, blah blah.

However she did something unexpected.

"Harry… I just wanted to say thanks… for saving my life," Hermione said without meeting his eye.

"Yeah whatever, I was just doing my job," Harry said with a shrug.

An awkward moment past before she turned around and headed towards Kingsley's office.

Harry thought that was by far the most awkward moment in his life, it was also their first conversation (if you could call it that) that they didn't try to annoy each other. As Harry walked out of the department, a folder full of files under his apartment he smiled as the elevator doors closed. There wasn't another time during the past year where he felt happier to leave the department for more than six days.

A/N: Hey me again! Just wanted to say thanks or reading! Really appreciate it! But I would appreciate it even more if you left a review! By the way it might take about six chapters until Hermione and Harry get together! If you spot any mistakes or anything you can e-mail me at should be posting new chapters about once a month. By the way i'm still looking for a BETA!


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